Hot Topics:

Former Loveland skater performs in Disney on Ice

By Jessica Benes Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
12/03/2013 05:37:57 PM MST

Jenny Gruver performs in October 2012 at the Disney on Ice show "Rockin' Ever After," portraying Queen Elinor from the movie, "Brave." She is performing with the show Dec. 5-8 in Denver.
(
Special to the Reporter-Herald
)

At the Oklahoma State Fair, the skaters could hear sheep from the make-up room.

In El Paso, Texas, the props were literally kept in a barn.

And those are the great stories when performing with a show like Disney on Ice, according to Jennifer Gruver. The adventures and the people.

And now Gruver's mom sits in the audience and watches her perform, knowing this was always her dream.

"It has always been a dream of mine to be part of a showy performance style skating rather than competitive," Gruver said.

Gruver is performing with Disney on Ice at the Pepsi Center Dec. 5-8.

Gruver grew up in Loveland, attended Thompson Valley High School and competed in figure skating through clubs in Fort Collins and Westminster.

Her dream came true in 2012. After she graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in anthropology, Gruver joined the Disney on Ice tour, "Rockin' Ever After."

Advertisement

Gruver said she has been figure skating since she was six years old. Her mother put her in group lessons and drove her to classes in Fort Collins and Westminster. "We introduced her to skating," said her mother, Linda Gruver. They took her to a pond to skate in Michigan on a vacation "We went skating there one night under the moon and she fell in love with it," Linda said.

They signed her up for weekly lessons until the coach said she should really be taking more lessons than that.

Jenny Gruver performs as Queen Elinor from the movie, "Brave," presenting the Scottish clans at a Disney on Ice performance, "Rockin' Ever After" in October 2012.
(
Special to the Reporter-Herald
)

"I would compete all over the U.S.," Jennifer said.

Jennifer said that when she saw Disney on Ice shows, like a Jungle-themed performance at the Budweiser Events Center a few years ago, it looked like the skaters were having a lot of fun.

She submitted an audition video in 2011 and the directors invited her to a live audition.

Now Jennifer is part of the magic. During her first tour, she explored the east coast with the other performers. This year, the tour is focused on the west coast. She hopes to travel internationally in a few years.

Jennifer is an ensemble skater and plays seven to nine roles per show. She is representing Queen Elinor from the movie, "Brave," and Mother Gothel from "Tangled."

"Rockin' Ever After" includes Disney princesses like Ariel from "The Littler Mermaid," Merida from "Brave," Rapunzel from "Tangled," and Belle from "Beauty and the Beast."

Linda is also proud that her daughter graduated from college before joining the tour.

"There are at least 100 people going to the show," Linda Gruver said. "She has quite a fan club around here. It's just so overwhelmingly joyful to see her living that dream and to hear of her experiences out there on tour."

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.